Scars
by heavenhelpmyheart
Summary: Kurt doesn't like to change in front of people. Blaine wants to know why. Set anytime while Kurt's at Dalton.
1. Scars

**A/N: This one is really short. I wrote it pretty quickly. I'm working on a new, (much) longer chaptered fic now. I still don't own glee. I kind of wanted to continue this, but now I just decided to write my own Dalton fic, loosely following canon, from Sectionals to BTW.**

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><p>"Can I ask you a... weird question?" Blaine asked quietly.<p>

Kurt had been happy when his dad and Carole had decided to let him board. For one, it prevented the ridiculous gas bills that commuting had required, and it allowed him to be more involved in the school, and to make more friends. For another, he got Blaine as his roommate. As difficult as it was to room with his crush without awkward moments, it was worth it. He woke up to Blaine every morning, what could be better than that? _Waking up _with_ Blaine every morning_, added the bitter voice inside his head, which he politely told to shove it.

"You just did." He replied to his roommate after a moment's hesitation.

"Funny. It's just, the Warblers are all comfortable around each other, and I've noticed you're very reserved about changing in front of any of us. Even me, and we share a room." Blaine's voice was as smooth as always, though he chose his words carefully.

"That's not a question, Blaine." Kurt abruptly got up from his bed, and went to his closet, not wanting to discuss this with Blaine.

_You do realize that eventually he's going to find out, correct? And you should also realize that he won't care, so maybe you should stop being stupid and just tell him. You've told him everything else. You even told him you _liked_ him! How could this be more difficult?_

The voice inside his head, which he appropriately named Glinda, was truly a bitch.

_And is also probably right._

"Oh, shut up!" He responded huffily.

"Alright, you don't want to talk about it. Fine, you could have just said so!" Blaine responded to his apparently-not-so-internalized thought.

"Sorry, not you. Glinda." Kurt responded without thinking and then mentally smacked himself.

_Smooth. Now Blaine knows that you have a little voice in your head, and that you _talk_ to it. If that's not enough to weird him out, then it should be no problem to tell him why you don't want him to see you shirtless._

"Glinda? Let me guess, the voice in your head, appropriately named after the character from Wicked?" Blaine sounded amused.

"You know me so well. To answer your 'weird question' I don't like changing in front of other people." Kurt responded, refusing to meet Blaine's eyes.

"Really? Because I distinctly recall you teasing Finn about getting changed around the Cheerios, how you'd seen more girls naked than he has? The concepts the same, they're not going to ogle you. I mean why would they?" At Kurt's raised eyebrow he stuttered to correct himself, "Not that there's not anything to ogle, it's just-"

"You're digging yourself a hole Blaine. Stop talking, I know what you mean." Kurt saved his friend from the embarrassment of trying to explain himself.

_Just remember he thinks you're ogle-worthy. _

"Is this really something we have to discuss?"

"No, I just was wondering. It's not like you're shy, or at least I've never seen you act shy. Even if you're not _impressive,_ you're certainly not the worst and-"

"The state of my abs is not what I'm worried about, Blaine." Kurt responded rather rudely.

"Alright, you clearly are not open to discuss this with me. However, I feel you deserve warning that Neil has also noticed that you refuse to change in front of us, and now will never stop pestering you until you do."

"Fantastic. Thank you for the warning." And with that, Kurt returned to his copy of Vogue, Blaine returned to his paper on Blood Diamonds, and the conversation was over.

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><p>"Oh, come on, Kurty! There's nothing to be embarrassed about. I mean, I'm sure you're hotter than Wes at any rate." Neil said with a laugh, then ducking to avoid Wes' attempt at retaliation.<p>

"You are an ass-hat." Wes rolled his eyes and then turned to Kurt. "Are we sure he's straight?"

"Not entirely." Kurt had already changed into his slightly different uniform in the bathroom, but that wouldn't prevent Neil from pestering him.

"I warned you." Blaine added helpfully from where he was talking to Michael. "He's never going to let this go." Neil continued to taunt Kurt, saying that 'pale is in' and other stupid things that didn't really matter, but bothered Kurt nonetheless.

_Although Blaine is probably right, perhaps right now isn't the best time to be dramatic about this?_ Glinda asked in an attempt to stop him from just snapping. _Think about it logically. You wouldn't tell Blaine when you were _alone_ and now you're going to tell all the Warblers, just because of a little teasing. You're stronger than that._

"Knock it off, Neil. I know that look. That is the look that says 'Bitch, back off right now or I will cut you.' Just leave Kurt alone. He's already changed, so can we get back to rehearsal?" Blaine looked to Wes for help, knowing that Kurt would do something dramatic if the focus was not drawn off of him soon.

"Oh, shut up, Blaine. Like you didn't ask before. If you want to know so badly, then fine." Kurt pulled off his blazer and shirt, ripping the latter nearly in half in his haste.

Blaine noticed a few things about Kurt in this order: 1) His skin was so pale it was practically glowing, 2) He actually did have nice abs, and 3) there were three ugly red scars twisted into letters spelling out the hatred of whomever had marred his perfect skin. In the middle of his stomach there were ugly scars spelling out 'FAG'.

One look at Blaine's face and Kurt ran out of the room, discarding his blazer, practically in tears. He ran to the 'short-cut' Blaine had shown him when he first came to the school, and dissolved into tears, sitting down in the middle of the floor.

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><p><em>For the record, I completely blame you. I told you that being dramatic was stupid. I told you to tell Blaine, who would have easily dealt with Neil. But no. You had to go and show everyone all at once, and then run out of the room in tears. Will the melodrama never cease with you? Do you completely lack common sense? What-<em>

"Oh, shut up, you bitch!" Kurt yelled into the empty hallway, silencing Glinda.

"Kurt?" Blaine approached the obviously upset soprano warily. "I'm sorry that I didn't stop them. I didn't think that it was a big deal. I didn't know, I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing, I'm the stupid one. I should have just let it go." Kurt let out somewhat of a strangled laugh. "To answer your question, Azimio's little goodbye gift is why I don't change in front of other people."

"He did this to you?" Blaine asked, the anger, usually so controlled, seeping into his voice.

"Yes." Kurt replied brusquely. "We should get back to rehearsal." With that, Kurt wiped his tears, and stood, walking on shaky legs back towards the rehearsal area.

"How about instead we go for ice cream? Give you a little time before you talk to them again?"

Kurt turned and smiled. "Thank you, but I think first I need a new shirt, and I don't eat ice cream."

Blaine rolled his eyes. "One ice cream is not going to kill your ass." With a grin he added, "For the record, you do have pretty nice abs."

"Cheerios." Kurt replied, slightly smugly.

"What?" This was a story Blaine had never heard.

"I'll explain... while we get ice cream." Kurt relented with a overly dramatic sigh and a smile.


	2. Explanations

**A/N: Damn you all. You made me want a sequel to Scars. I will now write this. You should all go check out The Power of Musicals (new chapter just went up), because it has some happier Klaine in it. I don't own Glee, or the songs used/mentioned.**

_Italices_** is mental voices (usually Glinda)****  
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><p>"Oh my God. I am an asshole." Neil fell dramatically back against the couch, breaking the awkward silence that had been left in Kurt and Blaine's departure. "I need to learn to shut my mouth. Why didn't any of you stop me?"<p>

"Honestly, Neil, none of us were expecting _that_!" David said, clearly in shock. "We thought he was just shy."

"And you_ are_ an asshole. At least _this_ time it was unintentional." Wes added.

Most of the Warblers just looked extremely uncomfortable. Neil, Wes, David, Michael, and Charlie were the only ones really talking about it. Blaine had long since left to comfort Kurt. None of them had expected that Kurt was horribly scared, they just expected he was shy because he was pale and skinny.

"I feel like we should apologize." Charlie said. "I definitely feel like _Neil_ should apologize," Charlie threw a mock-glare at the boy still draped over the arm of the couch.

"You're just protective of him because you think he's adorable." David said. "But we should apologize, maybe a song.."

"Not everything can be solved through music, David." Despite Wes's words, a few Warblers pulled out their iPods, and began searching for an appropriate song.

"And you're one to talk David, seeing as you started with the 'endearing' thing. Wes, you try to solve everything through song." Charlie's words were bitter and upset, not towards Wes or David, but just upset in general. Charlie was bitch when he was mad, much like Kurt.

"I don't think there is a song in the world that is appropriate for what I just did." Neil groaned.

"I'm sure we can find one." Wes said, with his fake 'happy-always-optimistic-leader' persona in place.

"Stop being so damn cheerful, Wes." Michael added, talking for the first time. "You guys never should have bothered him. He was already changed, you were just wasting time, and he's new here, he has a right to be shy. Just because you all took a liking to him because of everything Blaine said, doesn't mean he was comfortable around you. Even Blaine didn't know, that's enough of an indicator that we should have left it alone."

"I don't think I've ever heard Michael talk that much." David said wondrously, earning himself a none-too-gentle smack upside the head from Wes, Michael, and Charlie. "Ow, guys."

"I wonder where he got them." Everyone in the room knew that Wes was referring to the scars, but no one wanted to say it.

"Well, let's see. He's shy, he's flamboyant, and he transferred here at the end of first semester. I'd say he was bullied. What do you think?" Charlie asked sarcastically. He had been lucky that he was popular enough to avoid bullying in middle school, but his parents had pulled him out of public school before high school for exactly that reason.

"I think someone's a little touchy about the subject." Neil added from the couch, obviously still wallowing in guilt.

"Shut it, Neil." Charlie bit back quickly.

"Guys, arguing isn't going to help. Neil was stupid," Michael began

"Hey!" Neil said in indignation, despite having admitted it earlier.

"Would you let me finish? As I was saying, Neil was stupid, but so were all of us for not stopping him. The best thing to do is apologize to Kurt, and not treat him differently. And we should let him change however he wants to," Michael said, pointedly towards Neil.

"I'm sorry! I was curious! Forgive me!" Neil said sarcastically.

"Forgiven." David said, knowing from experience with his older sister that the best way to combat sarcasm was to pretend it wasn't sarcasm. "Anyone have an idea on how we should apologize?"

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><p>"So, Cheerios?" <em>And so much for not eating ice cream,<em> Blaine added mentally, for Kurt had gotten a huge sundae, and eating with gusto.

"They're the cheerleading team at McKinley. During Madonna week," Kurt began, because he had told Blaine about _most_ of his past, "Mercedes and I enlisted the male Cheerios help to do _Vogue_. Mr. Schuester and Ms. Sylvester were having a war over hairstyles, and we offered to give Ms. Sylvester a makeover."

"Wait a minute." Blaine interrupted. "You decided to give the crazy-scary cheerleading coach a _makeover_?" He was certain Kurt was out of his mind.

"She told us a touching," _and probably not true_, Glinda added, clearly deciding that Kurt was no longer upset with her, "story. She decided, though, that she didn't want to change herself, but change everybody else, in true Sue Sylvester style. So she made Mercedes and I Cheerios. We did _4 Minutes_ for a pep assembly. It was really fun."

"So how does this connect to your abs, exactly?" Blaine added raising one of his _not-cute-enough-to-live-on-his-face_ eyebrows.

"The training regimes for the Cheerios are amazingly difficult. I stayed on the team up until Nationals, won Nationals for them, and never rejoined this year. The only other numbers Mercedes and I performed were _Beautiful_ by Christina Aguilera, though that was mostly Mercedes, and I did a 14-minute-long Celine Dion medley entirely in French for Nationals. Mercedes quit before then though."

"She threatened the wrath of Coach Sylvester like that? Major kudos." Blaine added, amazed.

"First Cheerio ever to quit. Most either get kicked off or die." Kurt said with a completely straight face.

"Wait, die?" Blaine looked horrified.

"According to Ms. Sylvester, but she has a tendency to exaggerate." Kurt said with a nostalgic smile.

"Oh thank God." Blaine said, clearly relieved.

_And thanks to the Cheerios, Blaine totally thinks you're even more ogle-worthy. _Glinda added. She was told once again to shove it, mentally this time.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Blaine hesitantly began, "Kurt-"

"I don't want to talk about it." Kurt cut him off with a glare.

"Okay, sorry. I just, why?" _Eloquent._

"Karofsky told Azimio a rather messed-up version of his sexual assault." The cold tone in which Kurt said those words sent a shiver down Blaine's spine. "Azimio decided I was trying to 'turn his best friend gay,' oh the irony, and decided to give me a little reminder of what society thinks of us." _Azimio is an ass-hat. Don't forget that._ For a bitch, Glinda could be decidedly nice and supportive sometimes.

"I am so, so sorry Kurt." Blaine said sincerely, reaching across the table to take Kurt's hand.

Kurt just shrugged and didn't draw his hand away. Glinda mentally jumped for joy. _He's holding your hand! You're holding hands! Finally, progress! _"We should get back, I have a lot of homework, and catching up, to do." Kurt said drawing his hand back. _You're an idiot. If a cute boy decides he wants to hold you hand, you let him. Not that complicated. _

"Yeah. We should probably go talk to the Warblers, though." Blaine suggested hesitantly.

"Joy." Kurt sighed and added, "You're probably right."

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><p>The moment Kurt and Blaine walked into the Warblers practice room, the familiar melody started. While it was not the perfect song, Kurt did love Elton John, and it was a good apology.<p>

_What have I got to do to make you love me_

_What have I got to do to make you care_

_What do I do when lightning strikes me_

_And I wake to find that you're not there_

The verse wasn't really appropriate to the situation at all, but Kurt knew what the meaning of the song was, and he was blown away by Michael's voice, having never heard the boy sing before.

_What do I do to make you want me_

_What have I got to do to be heard_

_What do I say when it's all over_

_And sorry seems to be the hardest word_

Neil took the next verse, and while his singing wasn't as good, Kurt could tell that he was really upset by what he had done. He wasn't really upset with Neil, knowing that everyone had been curious, only Neil was tactless enough to bother him about it was the real difference.

_It's sad, so sad_

_It's a sad, sad situation_

_And it's getting more and more absurd_

_It's sad, so sad_

_Why can't we talk it over_

_Oh it seems to me_

_That sorry seems to be the hardest word_

All the Warblers joined in for this part, and they all looked guilty and apologetic.

_What do I do to make you love me_

_What have I got to do to be heard_

_What do I do when lightning strikes me_

_What have I got to do_

_What have I got to do_

_When sorry seems to be the hardest word_

Neil and Michael finished off in a duet, their voices blending together perfectly. Kurt wondered how they had put together this number in the short amount of time he and Blaine had been at the ice cream place.

"I'm sorry for running out like that." Kurt began, and continued despite the protests and apologies. "I'm not really mad at any of you, not even Neil. I just really didn't want to tell anyone.. but I suppose you all know know. I apologize, however, for how dramatic I was about it. Some untrue things were said by the person that was expelled because they were bullying me," Kurt looked down as he said this, and Blaine reached out to squeeze his hand, shaking his head at Charlie as he saw an incorrect assumption flow into his eyes. "So his best friend.. well you all saw. I also apologize for disrupting rehearsal."

"It's fine, Kurt, well it's not fine, it's far from fine, but-" Wes cut off David's babbling with a smooth explanation.

"We're certainly not mad at you Kurt. We all apologize for how Neil acted and for what happened to you. It was none of our business why you didn't want to change in front of us. The only person who really disrupted rehearsal was Neil, considering you were already changed. It certainly wasn't like you made a big fuss about it. Not to be insensitive, but we should probably get back to rehearsal now."

Ignoring Wes's last statement in true Neil fashion, he ran over and tackled Kurt into a hug, pulling Kurt's hand from Blaine's in the process. "I'm sorry, Kurty."

Kurt rolled his eyes and hugged back, saying, "You can make it up to me by never calling me Kurty again. That was actually a really excellent number by the way guys."

"Deal." Neil said at the same time Wes said, "Thank you, but we should probably practice _Firework._ From the top!

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><p><strong>AN: Happy now? I like this little part I really do, but this is staying a two-shot. I like my Warblers better than the real Warblers. I _love_ Glinda, and the last song is a nod to Kurt's comment about Blaine being Top 40, and, of course, _Teenage Dream._ Reviews are love.**


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